A bocio, a power figure of the Fon peoples of the historical kingdom of Dahomey (present-day Benin), carved in wood and bound with fibre cords. The word bocio joins "bo," meaning empowered, and "cio," meaning cadaver: an empowered corpse. Prescribed by priests and diviners for a client's protection, bocio were understood to strengthen and shield individuals and households against difficulty and threat, including, in the historical record, the trauma of the transatlantic slave trade along the Guinea Coast. This documented object stands, in this atlas, for a form whose public communal role, protection through spiritual empowerment, is openly described in the scholarship and by the objects' own holding institutions.
Facts
Origins
Date of Creation CountryBenin (historical Dahomey) 1 Medium (class) Subject Matter
Devotional FunctionA protective power object whose binding cords and accumulated materials were understood to strengthen and empower its owner against difficulty and threat. This atlas describes only that publicly documented protective role. 2 Custody
Current LocationYale University Art Gallery, New Haven (accession 2006.51.461) 1 Current CustodianYale University Art Gallery 1 Physical Form
MediumWood, fibre and feathers 1 Dimensions14.29 x 4.13 x 3.18 cm (5 5/8 x 1 5/8 x 1 1/4 in.) 1 Rights and Reproduction
Reproduction and CopyrightThis atlas describes and cites the object rather than reproducing a photograph of it, and describes only its documented physical form and general protective role, not any closed ritual content associated with it. 1 Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Source Human Figure (Bocio), 2006.51.461 (Yale University Art Gallery)
Sources
1. Human Figure (Bocio), 2006.51.461 (Yale University Art Gallery)
2. Bocio, 49.45 (Brooklyn Museum)
Brooklyn Museumcatalogue record, medium/object-type descriptionQuote, catalogue record, medium/object-type description
A bocio, a power figure of the Fon peoples of the historical kingdom of Dahomey (present-day Benin), carved in wood and bound with fibre cords.
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